Declining with Alzheimer’s

For the longest time, my father fought the idea of getting older—of not being the man he had been. Even as he was clearly declining with Alzheimer’s, he kept insisting that if he ate certain vitamins, did other things, he would be an exception.

Somewhere in his physical decline, when there were so many things he could no longer do, when he had to accept the indignity of wearing a diaper and having someone else change him—to see, and to know, what he was no longer capable of—he let go of his notions of immortality: death was going to happen to him, too.

And when he became accepting of that aspect of himself, he became much more accepting of others. Even with dementia, he was kinder and gentler, a nicer person to be around. He began to accept what he could not control.